CODES & STANDARDS

ICC/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES The International Code Council (ICC), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) recently announced the publication of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), the first set of model codes and standards for green building in the United States.

"Leveraging ICC's unrivaled delivery infrastructure to reach all 50 states and more than 22,000 local jurisdictions and ASHRAE('s), USGBC('s), and IES's technical strengths, this partnership will accelerate the proliferation of green-building codes and standards developed jointly by ICC, ASHRAE, USGBC, and IES across the country and around the globe," ASHRAE said in a statement. "The newly launched IGCC establishes a previously unimaginable regulatory framework for the construction of high-performance commercial buildings that are safe, sustainable, and by the book."

The IGCC includes the recently published ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2009, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, as an alternate path of compliance.

"The emergence of green-building codes and standards is an important next step for the green-building movement, establishing a much-needed set of baseline regulations for green buildings that is adoptable, usable, and enforceable by jurisdictions," ICC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard P. Weiland said. "The IGCC provides a vehicle for jurisdictions to regulate green for the design and performance of new and renovated buildings in a manner that is integrated with existing codes as an overlay, allowing all new buildings to reap the rewards of improved design and construction practices."

Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO, and founding chairman of the USGBC, added: "Broadening the scope of the codes and establishing a higher floor allows us to continue to raise the ceiling, a critical factor in how the building industry is working to mitigate climate change. ... Our organizations working collaboratively will advance green building nationwide in a way that was never before possible."

ASHRAE Nine proposed addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, are open for public review until April 19:

Addendum bu, which would modify computer-room efficiency requirements based on comments received during a previous public review.

Addendum cd, which would require exterior lighting control, add bi-level lighting control for general all-night applications, and add control of facade and landscape lighting not needed after midnight.

Addendum cn, which would add control-system combinations involving personal workstation control and workstation-specific occupancy sensors for open-office applications to the control-incentives table.

Addendum co, which would, in Table 6.8.1A, update energy-efficiency-ratio (EER) and integrated-energy-efficiency-ratio (IEER) values for all condensing units and water- and evaporatively cooled air conditioners with cooling capacities greater than 65,000 Btuh, establish a separate product class for evaporatively cooled air conditioners with different energy-efficiency standards, and replace the integrated-part-load-value descriptor for condensing units with the new IEER metric and adopt more-stringent EER values.

Addendum cp, which would establish efficiency requirements for variable-refrigerant-flow air conditioners and heat pumps.

Addendum cq, which would modify duct-sealing requirements.

Addendum cr, which would define an unmet load-hour lacking a throttling range or set-point limit.

Addendum ct, which would reduce the daylighting threshold from 1,000 sq ft to 250 sq ft.

Addendum cy, which would revise the economizer requirements in sections 6.5.1 and 6.3.2.